Sochi Olympic Research Articles

How social media engagement leads to sports channel loyalty: Mediating roles of social presence and channel commitment

Social TV is defined as real-time backchannel communication on social networking sites (SNSs) during a live television broadcast. Despite some pessimistic forecasts concerning the impact of social TV on viewing behaviors, broadcasters have found that the social TV phenomenon plays a positive role in boosting television ratings. We examine whether television viewers’ backchannel communication during a mega-sporting event has a positive effect on their sports channel loyalty. A survey of a randomly drawn sample (N=500) from national panel data in South Korea was conducted right after the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. On the basis of theories in web interactivity, emotional attachment, and company–consumer identification, we proposed three levels of social TV engagement. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis yielded the tripartite dimensions of social media engagement (i.e., functional, emotional, and communal) among viewers of social TV. A test of the structural equation model (SEM) revealed that functional engagement had a direct impact on social presence and that the communal engagement had a direct effect on channel loyalty. The effect of emotional engagement on channel loyalty was mediated by channel commitment. The social presence led to channel loyalty mediated by channel commitment.

Потенциал природно-климатических условий имеретинской низменности для интродукции тропических растений

Planting of greenery in the Sochi Olympic Park was necessary during the preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The used planting stock in order to maintain their normal physiological activities should be fit with locality’s natural conditions. Landscape and climatic surveys of the Imeretinsky Valley territory were carried out. Author’s and local meteorological station’s observations were the base for these researches.

Taking Remote Production to the Next Level: CBC's Coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games

In 2012, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was awarded the Canadian broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics. The Olympic broadcast experience is a nationbuilding event that embraces partnerships and cross-platforms and be can be shared in multiple languages. Content will be delivered on TV, desktop, mobile, tablet, and radio platforms with all sport available to watch live in both official languages, emphasizing a need for a production model that is flexible, robust, and cost effective. To meet this challenge, CBC/Radio-Canada (RC) has chosen a remote production model that utilizes a transmission concept that will extend the reach of our Olympic headquarters in both Montreal and Toronto not only to the International Broadcast Center, but directly to the sporting venues. This presentation covers new concepts of remote production, next-generation live remote event delivery, and transmission concepts that allow CBC/RC to make innovative production and cost-minimizing decisions. Remote production, as it applies to the CBC/RC, is a concept of producing content with minimal infrastructure deployed at the remote site. With only the necessary resources on site, costs are reduced, but more importantly quality and accessibility of media are increased utilizing existing robust infrastructure at home to support remote talent. Remote production on this scale required the development of new transmission concepts. Subjects covered in this paper include file-based delivery of content, Internet protocol technology at the venue, minimizing frame rate conversion, remote audio and video production, and next-generation transmission. The presentation also provides insight into the technical and operational challenges that were overcome and production opportunities that were realized during the design and implementation of the plan.

DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN’S AND YOUTH SPORTS IN SOCHI

Relevance of research.The problem of health decline of the younger generationis becomingincreasingly important. At present, the overalllevel of health deviation of children in Russia is annuallyincreasing by 7%. Because of modern lifestyle, most adults have weak motivation for physical activity andlow perceptions about healthy lifestyle as well as the sport.Implementing this policy, the State allocates substantial funding for the development of children’sand youth sport. Interests of the state are the following: efficient use of physical culture and sports to bringup patriotism of citizens, to prepare them for the protection of the country and serve in the army, healthpromotion, maintaining high availability and competitiveness of able-bodied persons in the labor market.The state is interested in the efficient development of sports and recreational clubs that make up such animportant segment of the sports industry as a recreational sport, as provision of sports and recreationalservices to the population affects the formation of healthy lifestyle, improvement in public health and thequality of human resources of the national economy.Holding in Russia Sochi Olympic Games-2014 significantly affected the increase of winter sportpopularity, the interest increased by 60 percent. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has said that it is stillnot enough for such a big country as Russia.The problem of further improving athletic training is not merely a search for new methods of trainingand selection, but most of all, a broad involvement of children to sports with further sports orientation.The object of studyis children’s and youth sports in the city of Sochi.The purpose of the studyis to determine the level of realization of state programs for thedevelopment of children’s and youth sport in the city of Sochi.Research methods and organization:1 Analysis and synthesis of data from literature and Internet resources;2 The method of mathematical statistics, processing the study results.Conclusions and suggestions.The most important link in the development of youth sport and itsbasement in the education system have always been and still remain youth sport schools which has trainedmany champions of Russia, Europe, World and Olympic Games. In connection with the preparation andholding of Sochi Olympic Games-2014 there was a significant increase in children’s and youth sport schools.Today 24 children’s sports schools are already active in Sochi.Further development of youth sport cannot go on the only way of increasing the number of sportsschools. The development of youth sports could also be contributed by the establishment of sportsclubs ateducational institutions. Proper organizing of the educational process at primary school, high school, andvocational school is unthinkable without the involvement of young people to the sport necessary to improvetheir lifestyle and mental performance. In addition, the creation of such sport clubs will help youth sportschools to select young athletes morequalitatively,more effectively implement their natural potential and toprovide favorable conditions for the improvement in the chosen sport.Keywords:health, children’s and youth sports, sports schools, legacy of the Games, the Olympicfacilities.

The 'Caucasus Knot': The New Lap of Violence

Three terrorist attacks in the Russian city of Volgograd allegedly committed by the Emirate were said to have been related to the determination of its leader Dokku Umarov to derail the Sochi Olympic Games. However, from another prospective it seems that these acts of violence had a much deeper meaning, exposing a broad array of underlying problems and unsolved issues within both the North Caucasus region and Russian society. In particular, attacks carried out by young radicalized Muslims revealed failed Russian attempts to establish regional peace and security by the transmission of wealth and power into the hands of one segment of the local society. Secondly, developments in Chechnya for the past decade (due to the regime of R. Kadyrov) have contributed the spread of radicalism to neighbouring republics, jeopardizing stability all over the Caucasus. On the other hand, the escalation of conflict has had ramifications for ethnically Russian regions that have taken various shapes and forms. Moreover, it should be admitted that the phase of hard war on the North Caucasus (1994-2009) has grown into a sophisticated multidimensional conflict composed of ethnic, religious and ideological components that will be given closer attention within the scope of this research paper. The scientific discipline that this Working Paper is operating in is mostly related to contemporary history.

Anti-doping analyses at the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Games 2014.

The laboratory anti-doping services during XXII Winter Olympic and XI Paralympic games in Sochi in 2014 were provided by a satellite laboratory facility located within the strictly secured Olympic Park. This laboratory, established and operated by the personnel of Antidoping Center, Moscow, has been authorized by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to conduct doping control analyses. The 4-floor building accommodated the most advanced analytical instrumentation and became a place of attraction for more than 50 Russian specialists and 25 foreign experts, including independent observers. In total, 2134 urine and 479 blood samples were delivered to the laboratory and analyzed during the Olympic Games (OG), and 403 urine and 108 blood samples - during the Paralympic Games (PG). The number of erythropoietin tests requested in urine was 946 and 166 at the OG and PG, respectively. Though included in the test distribution plan, a growth hormone analysis was cancelled by the Organizing Committee just before the Games. Several adverse analytical findings have been reported including pseudoephedrine (1 case), methylhexaneamine (4 cases), trimetazidine (1 case), dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (1 case), clostebol (1 case), and a designer stimulant N-ethyl-1-phenylbutan-2-amine (1 case).

The great Olympic myth

The Sochi Olympic Games combines genuine technological achievements with persisting old myths, unprecedented costs and the heaviest ever security. When an Olympic Games embraces green technology, environmental stewardship comes across, not as a fringe, progressive, political idea but something mainstream.

Sexual Orientation, Human Rights, and Corporate Sponsorship of the Sochi Olympic Games: Rethinking the Voluntary Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility

Multi-national enterprises (MNEs) have provided substantial sponsorship for the Sochi Winter Olympic Games despite a host-country government that has recently enacted stunningly harsh legislation aimed at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) communities within Russia. This is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) problem. Should Europe address it through voluntary corporate compliance, Europe’s historically preferred mode of promoting CSR? Or should Europe reconsider whether it can more effectively promote CSR compliance legislatively – and if so, by what kind of legislation? To honor the explicit and increased protections of human rights against sexual orientation discrimination in the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights, more than voluntary, good intentions are needed. Particularly since the United States has effectively bowed out of enforcing CSR through the American federal courts, there now exists a regulatory lacuna that the European Commission is best situated to fill through the precision offered by judicious rulemaking. The article ultimately proposes an approach that combines the public-pressure engine that fuels voluntary CSR with public disclosures mandated by law to optimize the information and mobilization of public opinion and pressure – factors particularly noteworthy given the powerful “branding” benefits that MNEs seek through Olympic sponsorship.

Sports Centric Tourism: Who Travels to Mega Sports Events?

AbstractThe aim of this study is to identify and describe mega sports event market segments based on cluster analysis and to provide critiques and suggestions to both academics and industry practitioners. Field study was conducted during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games onsite among tourists at the Olympic venues. A total of 258 questionnaires were valid for data analysis. The study explores whether demographic characteristics of Olympic Games visitors affect their perceptions of event quality, destination image and perceived value by performing cluster analysis and discriminant analysis. Event quality was found to be formed by two clusters of tourists, and three clusters emerged both for destination image and perceived value. The results show that there are differences among these segments in terms of visitors’ perceptions of listed constructs affecting their revisit intentions and intentions to recommend destination. The article concludes by giving the reader an example of how each of the steps was processe...

Activating a global sport sponsorship with social media: an analysis of TOP sponsors, Twitter, and the 2014 Olympic Games

This research explored the use of Twitter for sponsorship activation by the The Olympic Program (TOP) sponsors during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games. Using NCapture, a total of 7,519 tweets and retweets of all ten TOP sponsors around the Games were captured from the 1st of January (pre-Olympic) to the 3rd of April, 2014 (post-Olympic). The data were analysed with the aid of Leximancer analytics software. Results show that there is no regular pattern of Twitter use for activation that was identifiable amongst the TOP sponsors; all were found adopting different strategic approaches. Notably, the TOP sponsors differ in terms of the number and types of tweets they produced, retweets they broadcasted, hashtags they rerun, and the registered growth of their followers from pre-games to post-games. The results also show three possible sponsorship objectives communicated by TOP sponsors, namely promotion (of services, products, and companys image), customer appreciation, and athletes encouragement. Potential theoretical and practical implications will be discussed, including suggestions for future research. The work encourages continued investigation.